NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The Times-Picayune
November 11, 2018
By Mark Lorando
As I write this I am preparing to make one last run through my inbox before making the hourlong drive to Convent, La., where I will park my car, turn off my laptop and cellphone, and attempt to leave the world – and the newsroom – behind.
It’s my annual four-day silent retreat at Manresa, the Jesuit retreat center surrounded by 130 acres of majestic, moss-draped oaks on River Road in St. James Parish. I began making this trek in the fall of 2003 and have more or less scheduled my life around it every November since. Given the high-stress, round-the-clock nature of the news business, my mental, physical and spiritual health pretty much depend on it.
The goal is always to set thoughts of work aside for a few days and re-center body and soul through reflection and prayer. Some years, that’s easier said than done. And it will be particularly difficult this year given the timing of the retreat, one week after the Archdiocese of New Orleans released the names of 55 priests and two deacons it said had been “credibly accused” of sexual abuse of minors dating as far back as the 1910s.
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